Community Bands Together to Support the Escamilla Family

FREMONT – Hundreds of people came together to celebrate the life of Blake Escamilla, and to support the family he left behind, at a fundraiser at Miller Park on Saturday.

24-year-old Blake Escamilla of Fremont, passed away in a motorcycle accident on July 20th. He was the only source of income for his family, which includes his wife Anna and their daughter, Harlow. This prompted his friends, including close and longtime friend, Matt Rief, to put together a fundraiser to celebrate Blake’s life and raise money to help support the family. Rief says the idea started out small, but grew thanks to social media and the overwhelming support of the Fremont community.

“Just the response from the community. It’s just a great sign for the Fremont community and what the city did to help us put this event on,” said Rief. “We talked to the Fremont Police Department. They were notified just to support the event. And overall the parks and rec director was huge. The parks board approved us actually having the fundraiser here.

A number of local businesses donated to the event, including Dillon Brothers Harley-Davidson, Punx Tattoo & Body Piercings, Backstage Review, Zesto, Hormell, and more. Many businesses helped by donating items to the silent auction, paying for T-shirts to be made, and providing food.

Many of Blake’s family was at the event, including his parents, Art Escamilla and Tamera Pascoe. They say it means a lot to see how much the community cared for their son.

“Blake was just an awesome kid, growing up and turning into a young man. He had a lot of friends,” said Escamilla. “When they were littler and I had my business in town, it was kind of nice. We knew a lot of people, and we all kind of grew up in this town. I think it’s totally awesome that the community is coming together and doing all this in memory of him.”

His wife, Anna, who was in a car accident on October 28th of last year, still isn’t able to work. The fundraiser was put together to help fund her final surgery, medical expenses, bills, and taking care of herself and Harlow.

Other fundraisers and ways to support the family have been organized, including a memorial volleyball tournament on August 20th, and a pulled pork cookout in North Bend on August 12th.